• News & Events

  Calendars Meetings Daily News Summary News Releases Media Resources

• Daily News Summary

An electronic digest of media coverage of interest to members of The Florida Bar compiled each workday by the Public Information and Bar Services Department. Electronic links are only active in today's edition. For information on previous articles, please contact the publishing newspaper directly.

February 20, 2013

--The Florida Bar--

BAR LEADERSHIP ACADEMY APPLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE -- The Florida Bar News, http://www.floridabar.org, March 1, 2013.
As The Florida Bar’s new Leadership Academy readies to begin accepting applications March 1, the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism is hard at work developing a diverse and thorough curriculum to shape new leaders for the profession across the state. The topics to be covered will range from strategic planning initiatives to building consensus and synergy to team building to harnessing the power of relationships to leaders looking at the future of the legal profession. The academy is a key initiative of Bar President-elect Eugene Pettis, who said a growing need for leaders in the profession provided the impetus for the idea.

--Legal Profession--

ATTORNEY TO SPEAK ON INTEGRITY -- Bloomingdale Patch, http://bloomingdale.patch.com, Feb. 20, 2013.
Tampa attorney Scott Tozian will speak on "Integrity in Our Communities" Thursday, Feb. 28 from 12:15 to 1:45 p.m. at the Cooley Law School. According to an announcement posted by the law school, Tozian’s program will take an in-depth look at character and fitness problems often encountered by Bar applicants. Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s Center for Ethics, Service, and Professionalism is hosting the lecture.

--Legislature--

FLA. GOV. COULD GET MORE POWER OVER PICKING JUDGES -- Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com, Feb. 20, 2013.
By The Associated Press: Florida House Republicans are bringing back a bill to give Gov. Rick Scott more influence over the state's judicial branch. A House panel on Wednesday [Feb. 20] is expected to take up a measure that gives the governor more control over judicial nominating commissions. Those boards screen judicial applicants and recommend to the governor who should be appointed to the bench. Each of the 26 commissions consists of nine members appointed by the governor but The Florida Bar gets to recommend four of the nine.

--Judiciary--

ST. LUCIE CIRCUIT JUDGE, LONGTIME PALM CITY ATTORNEY MAKE 4TH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL SHORTLIST -- Jupiter Courier, http://www.tcpalm.com, Feb. 20, 2013.
Judge Mark Klingensmith, 52, a circuit judge in St. Lucie County and Alan O. Forst, 54, a longtime Palm City attorney are among six finalists for a vacancy on the 4th District Court of Appeal. The West Palm Beach-based District Court of Appeal, which hears cases appealed from the 19th, 17th and 15th judicial circuits (Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin Okeechobee, Palm Beach and Broward counties), has been operating one short of its full 12-judge complement since the Jan. 7 retirement of Judge Fred Hazouri of Palm Beach County.

WILLIAM BRUCE SMITH SELECTED AS CHIEF JUDGE FOR 10TH CIRCUIT -- Lakeland Ledger, http://www.theledger.com, Feb. 20, 2013.
Circuit Judge William Bruce Smith has been re-elected as chief judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit, which encompasses Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties. Smith's fellow judges unanimously elected him last week to serve another two-year term in the post, which begins July 1. The chief judge fulfills various administrative duties, and serves as a liaison for the courts with the county and the Florida Supreme Court.

FLORIDA JUSTICES DENY APPEAL FOR TROOPER'S KILLER -- Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com, Feb. 20, 2013.
The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday [Feb. 19] unanimously denied a post-conviction appeal and stay sought by a drug trafficker who is facing execution on Feb. 26 for killing a state trooper with a pipe bomb. Howell was convicted of killing Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford in February 1992. Fulford had stopped a car carrying the bomb, hidden inside a gift-wrapped microwave oven, on Interstate 10 east of Tallahassee.

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS POLICE "DOG SNIFF" OF TRUCK -- Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com, Feb. 20, 2013.
By Reuters: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday [Feb. 19] unanimously upheld a trained police dog's search of a truck for evidence, saying that training and testing records had established the dog's reliability and given the police probable cause. The case . . . had been watched closely by criminal defense advocates. At issue was the work of Aldo, a German Shepherd whose "free air sniff" helped his police handler find methamphetamine ingredients inside Clayton Harris' pickup truck after it had been pulled over in Liberty County, Florida, in 2006.

--Unlicensed Practice of Law--

WEST BOCA COUNCIL HEARS ABOUT PROPERTY MANAGERS ISSUE -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel, http://www.sun-sentinel.com, Feb. 20, 2013.
The West Boca Community Council got a jump on an issue that could restrict what property managers do for community associations. An eight-page letter on the issue addressed to Jeff Picker, assistant Unauthorized Practice of Law [called UPL] counsel for The Florida Bar, requests that community association managers be permitted to perform the duties at issue, which include preparing documents concerning the right of the association to approve new prospective members. A two-hour public hearing took place, and the Bar's UPL committee is meeting Friday [Feb. 22] in Tampa.